My stylist chooses for me. I pay him through the nose to make sure I look good.
Oh, I get the hyperbole - it was just the snark and implied attitude of how she goes into a salon or whatever to get her hair cut that annoyed me.
Sadly, it’s how many hair school train the students - according to the state board books, black hair is basically IMPOSSIBLE to cut in it’s natural state. Don’t even try it! :rolleyes: I learned ethnic hair from another hairdresser - who taught me a TON about ethnic hair. And I am eternally grateful for that. Because of her, I now have a very diverse client base, whereas some of the girls I work with tremble in fear when a non-white person comes into the salon! I can usually tell the exact moment when I am going to hear “Um, Gypsy, can come over here for a sec?” It’s cool though - I’m just a-spreadin’ the hair love! 
On a totally unrelated note, have you seen Chris Rock’s “Good Hair” yet? If you haven’t, you MUST! It’s fantastic. Truly.
I walk in knowing exactly what I want. Just do it and let’s get it over with.
One of the greatest under-reported social injustices facing the world today is how many stylists basically ignore their male customers. I was starting to feel like an idiot trying new people because when I asked them what I could do to make my hair look better they were all nonplussed that I would even ask.
I’ve always had very fine light hair and there’s definitely not a lot you can do with it, but once I finally found my current guy it was amazing how much better he did with it. Now that it’s actually thinning he’s even more important because I would have had no idea how to ask for it to be cut to minimize the baldness.
Guys are the people who really need their stylist looking out for us because so few of us have any idea what to ask for. I mean, personally I really want to look nice but I certainly don’t want to learn about hair or what looks good on me - I want to be told.
I clicked I ask for advice, and it’s true that I appreciate it.
But there’s also a fine line between advice and “up-selling” which annoys the crap out of me. No, I do not want to hear about the new “clapping” product, and please keep your negative comments about my eyebrows to yourself. They bleed non-stop when I tweeze or wax, no, threading will not change that fact.
I end up feeling like I’m trapped in the chair, and if I don’t agree with everything you say I’m afraid you will not do as fine a job on my hair as you could. (I don’t think they’d outright sabotage it, but you can spend 30 seconds wit the razor or two minutes, and it makes a huge difference in a short haircut.)
So yeah, advice and creativity - A+ Playing the hard sell like a Tin Man - I won’t be back.
I require a 4th option.
When it comes to style, feel free to give suggestions and if you think I will look stupid with a certain cut, feel free to tell me.
When it comes to color - keep your big mouth shit and when I say NO, stop pushing the issue.
I have natural red hair with a large amount of natural highlights, varying from pure white to dark red. I love my hair color. People pay huge amounts of money to try to have my hair color. Why the hell would I want to color my hair? Why would I want to add chunky mango highlights, which would cover up my natural highlights? Seriously now, did you even go to school for this?
So…Cut - feel free to suggest away. Color - keep your thoughts to yourself.
Enough to tell me when I’m making a mistake and suggest something to suit my face better.
That’s how much input I want, right now though? My hairdresser just does whatever the hell she wants and I let her. Of course she also happens to be my best friend and knows what suits me so I don’t have to worry about it. She dyes my hair and cuts it and most of the time I don’t even get a glimpse until it’s done.
Since she started cutting my hair a couple years ago I have yet to be called sir again, or look like I’m sixteen still (somehow…)…
I love my current stylist. She and a few other girls defected from the salon they all worked in and opened their own place. A really cool place. I’ve been going to her for a total of 5 years or so. It took us over a year to figure out the best way to cut my super-baby-fine-but-dang-there’s-a-lot-of-it hair is to do it dry. (blow dryer + round brush = brush stuck in tangles) So I wash and dry it before going, and she does all sorts of stuff with regular shears, thinning shears, and a razor blade. She charges me 20 bucks in the end, while the going rate starts at $40 at this salon.
The first couple of years, we did some crazy coloring, triple process stuff with colors like teal and pink and purple and blue. I got that out of my system and did just normal stuff for a while. Two summers ago, I let her have at it. Said to cut it whatever way she thought was best. She gave me the awesomest shag cut. Advice writers always say if you put your long hair up all the time, you should cut it off or change the cut because if you want to put it up all the time it’s not working for you. Now I believe them! I have worn it up exactly 3 times since she cut the shag in with all the layers. The excessive weight is gone, and even though it’s between my shoulder blades, it’s not hot to wear down any more!
I love my stylist. It took some time to trust her after years of other people cutting styles that really didn’t fit me, but she and I are both glad I finally did!
I have a great stylist and she keeps me updated. She will tell me if she thinks something would look better or it’s time for a change. I trust her and I take what she says and usually go along with her.
When it comes to my hair I know what “style” I want.
I don’t want their input nor their suggestions.
Just cut it and shut your yapper.
I let my stylist do whatever to my hair, I have baby fine hair and a lot of it to boot even though you can’t tell. She knows what I do for a living and how much time I like to spend on my hair. She cuts it to fit my needs and makes it look good, of course I have been going to her for the past 10 years. She also suggested that I stop dyeing my hair, she thought that the natural grey in my hair was gorgeous, it’s more silver then white with streaks just above both of my eyebrows. She was right I’ve more people come up and ask me who dyed my hair and I can honestly say that no one has touched it.
I usually come in and say “I need to look decent, no sideburns, and look like I’m going to an interview or something. Other than that, do what you think is best.” And then I say nothing else, and go silent. If they try to talk to me, I just smile and nod and hope for the best.
It’s served me well pretty far actually, nothing to crazy, nothing too bad, and usually the hair always ends up the same. Then again, I’m a dude, and I get my hair cut like 3x a year. I believe my first hair cut of the year will be coming up on Friday…
I’m also a dude. I get my hair cut when it gets annoyingly long. If it were up to me, I’d get it shaved off at that point, just to push out the time until I next need to get it cut as far as possible.
So, I want a stylist to keep me from looking like the idiot I am. I figure she is the best judge of what others consider stylish, and so welcome her opinion.
I don’t go to a stylist; I go to an upscale barber, but I still ask for advice, and I especially love it if the barber takes charges and knows what he’s doing.
If I go to a independent salon and not a chop shop I really do expect some expert advice. Just yesterday I went to an unfamiliar salon knowing I had to do something about my long flat ashy looking hair. The Gal, Dena, was awesome!
Of course she asked what I was looking for and I told her a little direction and advice please! She seemed pleased to be asked and went right to work. She took my likes/dislikes tweaked it a little and suggested a “demi” color something (as I indicated I wanted shiney glossy hair).
Now my hair is out of the clips, hairties and buns I used to always have in it, it’s bouncy shiny dare I say almost sexy.
I will go back to her. But I will say her coworker was the biggest snot. And that is what I hate, to be made to feel invisible when you walk ina salon, this other gal was the only one upfront. I smiled and said hello when I walked in, she ignored me. Then after standing at the desk for 5 minutes she asks what am i waiting for, not can I help you, I’ll be with you in a minute, or anything remotely friendly. just a snot and I decided if she was Dena I was going to walk out on her face.
Luckily my gal was soooo much nicer.
I know. I cut my hair for many years and always liked what I got results that I liked, but then after I moved out of a house with three-way mirrors and could no longer see the back of my head, the results became increasingly poor. I started giving in (was broke and in college) and paying people tp cut my hair, many of whom were completely lost unless it was straightened. I got to the point of calling salons and telling them my hair wasn’t straight, and I needed a cut - was that going to be a problem?
I’ve not seen “Good Hair” but I haven’t heard a bad thing about it yet. Onto Netflix!
- Love the typo. I didn’t even notice it until cropping the quote. 2) Onto the point, yes! I’ve only gone to this guy three times, and each time he asks me about coloring. No! I like my hair color too. I’m a woman with dark brown skin, so I think my hair color matches me perfectly. The first time he brought it up and I said no, he wouldn’t leave it alone. “Often women with relaxers in their hair don’t want color because they’re afraid of over-processing and damaging it, but I’m great at adding color to already relaxed hair and still keeping it healthy.” Yeah, not really my concern. I don’t want to over-process my hair, but moreover, I want my hair black!
Yay! This is how I felt last year when I changed my cut for the first time in 5 years. I asked the guy for his advice, and he made magic happen. I didn’t think I could look good with a short cut, but he left enough length in the front, and did enough laying in the back that it looks super sweet. Even better than the cut is how shiny, bouncy and healthy my hair was when he was done with it. It was the best my hair had looked in years.
Why oh WHY did he have to move?
When looking into hair style ideas, I try to find photos of people who not only have my hair texture and thickness, but similar facial features; these days that means I tend to look into Asian hair trends and whatever the Scandinavians are doing with their hair these days-- both have a tendency toward really straight hair, but there’s a lot more creativity going on in the Asian hairstyles online.
When you had the final haircut with the last stylist, did you let them know that the results of the cut you got were not anywhere near what you wanted? If he/she didn’t listen, did you talk to the owner/manager? Most salons IME are willing to hear feedback, even if it’s not good feedback, and correct/refund as needed.
When I’m in the pursuit of short hair, I tend to throw ideas at the stylist and look for feedback on what they think I should do. Occasionally it’s “here’s a couple of ideas for length/texture; have fun!” but normally I bring in some photos to illustrate what I’m talking about. I think that, when going from one extreme to another (long, one-length hair to a short, layered style), it’s important to give a jumping-off point but to also give the stylist some freedom to play with ideas for something that may look great. I’m in the process of growing my hair back out, so the main goal of haircuts these days is to keep my bangs tamed and my hair even, but I do like to experiment when I go shorter and I often like to add layers and dislike having “boring” short hair.
It’s a weird one. I often don’t know exactly what I like, but I often know exactly what I don’t. I usually explain what facial features I want offset. For one, I think my head is rather big, and I don’t want my hair to make it bigger.
I also usually have to tell them to make it shorter than it needs to be so I don’t have to go back every couple of weeks. Give me a style that has room to grow.
Finally, give me options. Since it’s impossible to look exactly the same every day, I like to vary things up a bit. Please don’t cut it so it only looks good after you’ve styled it. Heck, I probably will never get my hair back that way again, since, for some reason, even the same gel doesn’t work the same way when I try to use it.